Thanks for your comments, everyone. I must have missed the eclipse posts, but I have to explain the story: Several years ago, I may have been in California or Hawaii at the time, someone told me about how the Pacific Islanders of old used to predict earthquakes based on the path (i.e., visability) of solar eclipses. In other words, places that were in a direct line of a total solar eclipse were bound to get a quake larger than usual. Anyway, whenever my kids were disappointed about not being in the path of a solar eclipse we'd tell them that at least we wouldn't be getting a big quake any time soon. Then they got big enough to notice - this was around the time of that big total eclipse in Turkey - that it was followed within a couple of days by a big earthquake. Well, since then, it has seemed to follow that we haven't had a total quake but no huge quakes either. We heard it again in Hawaii several years ago during soccer western regionals when we took the team out for a tour of something and I was surprised to hear it again. Thus, it is probably coincidence, but it has been interesting to watch. BTW, now that they are older, it's more of a joke around here - or maybe a superstition.
Thanks again,
Beth